Yesterday I practiced yoga behind a father with his son.
Toward the end of the class the teacher had us go into Bridge Pose, where you lie on your back, feet flat on the floor, and exhale your tailbone up and forward until the spine is in a straight line off the floor, leaving your feet and the base of your neck resting on the ground. The body from chin to knees becomes the "bridge", encouraging breath and blood circulation between the head and the feet. The pose can be practiced with eyes focused on the tip of the nose, which focuses the mind for heightened awareness. In this pose we experience the grounding support of our feet, from another angle. It's not a position we typically find ourselves in, and so, like most novel experiences, the physical posture can translate into new mindsets: thoughts, realizations, and breakthroughs.
The father and son seemed to practice yoga often -- for the most part, the boy followed along well, and when he wasn't sure how to create the posture the teacher was directing, his father would patiently move his limbs for him or model in a way that made sense to him.
With stunning purity, the child set up into bridge pose, held for a breath, and turned to his Dad to say, about nothing in particular and so, to my understanding, about everything within and around him, simply, "Thank You".
His spontaneous overflow of gratitude was moving. In bridge pose, your heart lifts above your brain, which has metaphorical interpretations and literal physiological effects because of how the blood/breath/prana/"life force" is able to move through the body when the feet stand strong, tailbone lifts toward belly button, heart reaches up, shoulders wrap down to support the chest, and head rests at the bottom of the "bridge" the spine becomes.
Sometimes I'll feel emotional sensations in practice -- usually when I'm especially relaxed -- and any time profound emotions surface, it is reason to celebrate. This boy's experience of gratitude was contagiously celebratory. My pose changed, from bridge to wheel to wheel with heels lifted, an expression of the pose I seldom, if ever, take. The manifestation in my body, as if directed by the gratitude witnessed within this child, emerged just before he voiced his "Thank You," and repeated it twice more across three creations of the pose. It was almost as if the boy was speaking gratitude in response to what was happening in the room, and it worked as a benediction, too. His words let me witness and understand the emotion I feel quietly strengthening as my the front of my heart opens and extends forward. Little by little, inch by inch, I will welcome gratitude as a wise friend and guide toward simpler, purer, fuller life.
